france pushes to retake mali from islamist militants as battles rage across the country this while the number of victims in the algerian hostage crisis triggered by the campaign rises to forty eight. the german chancellor's ruling coalition suffers defeat in a key regional vote. christian democrats lose ground to the social democrats opposition in regional elections. and president barack obama officially begins his second term in office with many waiting to see if he will deliver on numerous promises on to mastic and foreign issues.

is three pm here in moscow twelve noon in elle's years you're watching our team with me and he said no way our top story this hour twenty five more bodies have been found in the wake of the algerian desert crisis bringing the total number of confirmed hostage deaths to forty eight overall more than eighty people have been killed during the four day standoff between the country's security forces and militants algeria says they've arrested five suspected islamist attackers after earlier reports that all thirty two hostage takers have been killed in the operation to end the siege well as many as twenty workers still remain unaccounted for as foreign governments try to track down their missing citizens a libyan al kind of linked group claimed they're behind the attack which they say was in revenge for french intervention in neighboring mali

a heavily armed insurgents rated the plant on wednesday with algeria as initial response drawing criticism from western nations as artie's probably boycott reports the campaign in mali which sparked a hostage situation appears to be a part of a french geo political agenda. we don't always but it's terrorism was about to overwhelm the friendly country the terrorism that threatens not just all of west africa but also the entire world. he's vowed that france won't stop its intervention in mali until islamic extremism in the country is stamped out the military has announced that it's going to be sending more troops but the total set to exceed two hundred thousand a stated goal to help the government in bamako drive out his list insurgents before the francois alarms talk of freedom and democracy critics say the french government you see as a for the military offensive could be linked to other elements u.a.d.

of these fronts. many people say a huge cost is a huge factor in its economy and it's something that not only mali but specifically niger and other neighboring parts where the tourist people reside. sits on top of almost every single light bulb in france runs on electricity generated by nuclear power power relies on a steady flow of pure rainy i'm so you don't have to be a nuclear physicist to figure out that to keep all these bright lights on the french government depends on a steady flow of the precious natural resource but molly says micio land is not about power or money so that you know security this is nothing to do with any political issue from a different time if we are defending a government or business interests which government which business. some have their suspicions nationally supported the courage energy company.

is about to finish the second largest ukrainian mining plant in the world next of ali every year the cars do exactly this uranium is going to be very cheap there's a third world very cheap. very. very interesting and after the french military offensive reportedly sparked a deadly hostage crisis in algeria lightbox the beginning to go off in the heads of ordinary citizens to pull out almost. for intervention if it is to fight terrorists but it's got to be for good reasons i know that it's for raw materials that are in mali oil diamonds and gold already. they don't think about the well they have made paris a huge target and from such a target for terrorism studies but with the prospect of an untapped natural resources needed to keep fronts eliminated political analysts say that for

a promise to stop a big profit from economies is again to be fulfilled any time soon playboy can see paris. well the french defense minister said quote the goal is the total reconquest of mali let's see if france can void a drawn out campaign as president francois hollande had initially hoped for at the start of this intervention it would take a look at the map here this northern part that you see in yellow is controlled by al-qaeda linked rebels and local tor against surgeons and this is marked as i said by this enormous yellow that is the size of france itself so you can imagine the territory that we're talking about here some of the weapons that these attackers were using insurgents in mali is actually came from the french led campaign to get rid of colonel gadhafi in libya so the weapons are coming in from libya in to mali

. if we take a look at another neighbor algeria there's expected that and we've already seen this hostage crisis although it's expected that this crisis could move throughout the region libyan smugglers taking more arms in throughout syria we're hearing reports about that. all this could make it difficult for france to fully secure the area in a short amount of time as i said it was initially planned that way by the president well international relations professor mark almond says the current situation in mali could lead to even further unrest across the region we're getting a kind of an eye level to this problem of kind of backwash from that intervention because you have not ordered through what's going to happen if you overthrow gadhafi but you don't actually put anything stable in its place quite contrary spreads and similarly in mali the argument is that france is intervening to stop tails but the risk must be from what we've seen with interventions before that the

french intervention actually tend to send ripples of disorder further around the region and nobody seems to think that perhaps organized groups can come from somewhere other than mali it seems they came across the nearby libyan border libya is as i say central to all this problem because all the lot of weapons that's been produced by the quotes the gadhafi regime but also the complete failure to establish any kind of real state you have essentially walls operating in different parts of libya. german chancellor angela merkel's party has lost a key regional election marking another setback for the ruling coalition it means merkel will have to struggle to be reelected as the september vote will put her politics to the test artie's peter oliver now reports from berlin on how her popularity is dwindling at home and abroad. it's the thirteenth setback in local elections that angle merkel's christian democrat party and their coalition partners the free democrats have suffered it's also more importantly the fifth the

fifth state government which they've lost to the social democrats since two thousand and nine this vote in lower saxony which is the fourth most populous state in germany it seemed very much as a bellwether of opinion and it was incredibly tight well it was by one seat and what it does mean though even by the smallest of margins the social democrats well they smell blood heading into the general election their candidate for the chancellorship steinbrück said this well this shows that a change of government and power is possible this year what's interesting when you look at this particular particular local election is the euro zone crisis really didn't come into it this was a local election where people were voting on local issues now it's in that area where mrs merkel is starting to show some weaknesses as it were and her christian democratic party and their coalition partners but she still has this personal

appeal as the leader because of what she's done for the eurozone crisis but of course that isn't mirrored when you look around the rest of europe particularly in countries like greece where we've seen burned in effigy and even compared to addle for hitler because the greek people they see angela merkel as the main person behind the austerity that they're having to live through so her popularity abroad personally isn't particularly great when it comes to the eurozone crisis however germans are happy with the way that she's managed this crisis and managed germany's economy throughout it as i say it's going to come down to whether she can convince the german people that she's the right person to manage german interests at home as well as those abroad whether she can win not third term towards the end of this year. japan's foreign ministry has launched an official protest with china after three of its ships were sighted in the east china sea near just spewed islands it

comes after beijing slammed washington's position on the conflict urging it to be careful with its words and maintain peace in the region now the u.s. warned it against any action that would undermine japanese administration of the territories at the same time secretary of state hillary clinton said it doesn't take a position on who has sovereignty over the islands china has sent ships and planes to the area claiming it's exercising normal jurisdiction in its waters and airspace well japan in turn said it may fire warning shots of foreign aircraft violating what it sees as its territory the founder of international strategic alliances george who says it's the u.s. and japan who are escalating tension. the u.s. has this role of being the policeman around the world and spreading the military forces all around the world now can they afford it well that's a different question because it seems like in order to to meet their military budget which is ever increasing they're probably going to have to borrow the money

and most likely they'll be borrowing the money from the chinese china has. been. asking japan to recognize and negotiate rather than rushing ratcheting up the tension of course japan and inviting electing is not going to help because it is very well known ha och in this particular situation and the u.s. for its own strategic reason viewed japan as to prefer an ally and that's what contin agree this friction but i am not sure that i think cooler heads will will come and not go to war over these little specks of violence certainly china has never been. the aggressor in terms of in terms of these disputes. still ahead for you this hour a second chance as the u.s. president kicks off another four years in office many wonder whether he'll deliver

on at least some of his old promises. and running for your life later on we have the story of a half naked man who fell from a train in the middle of a frozen forest and managed to survive that's coming up after this short break. oh. do we speak your language i mean some of the worn out of the. news programs and documentaries in spanish more matters to you breaking news a little turn to defang those stories. here.

altie spanish find out more visit i to our. mission free credit patient free storage free. range month free. three stooges free. download free broadcast live video for your media project a free video gondar t. dot com. so again you're watching live from moscow well with a general election looming in israel polls suggest there will be little change the country's parliament forecasts are predicting prime minister netanyahu has returned

to office and are leaving many voters apathetic and disillusioned about democracy in the country as artie's policy we are now reports. the countdown has begun but instead of scanning the papers to brush up on who's saying what in the final hours before his weight his head to the polls. is searching for an apartment the twenty eight year old is desperate to move out of his parents' home but times are tough and he blames the government i'm not going to vote i see who are the candidates and there is no one standing who represents me or who can change the general mood in the country with. the recent political jostling that's all candidates need from one party to another induced even more pessimism in people like musharraf who have lost trust in israeli politicians the union between bibi netanyahu and his foreign minister avigdor lieberman beat them in government the return of c.p. leave me former opposition leader back into the fray just a few months after announcing her time and only frustrated and already election

where we public many israelis don't believe that the present politicians and parties. have any really new solutions to the big problems facing israel security peace spirit economic issues. but among all the uncertainty one thing is certain for the disenchanted voters and it can work and i also feel like the outcome is pre-determined everyone knows not and you know who is going to win or them or the apathy based on the belief that netanyahu will almost certainly when has led experts to worry about the state of his way to democracy. there are some populations designing the israeli society if you take a certain sort of the ultra orthodox presenters that turns out to vote is very high it's above eighty on the other hand when you look at the middle class the youth and the arabs the presenters is around sixty. and those figures only help netanyahu and his allies of course there are parties who are ready to oppose the

government's policies one of their merits boasts that a vote for them is a secure vote against netanyahu and a leadership that will destroy israel first of all are is aleisha in the war will continue there will be no solution to the palestinian problem and the economic and social gaps between rich and poor will get to much why they are in deeper but merits is expected to win only around five percent of the votes in a record field of fifty four parties that are running in these elections netanyahu is party is expected to get only about a quarter of the seats in the parliament but with other political forces being shattered into rival factions this is still going to be enough for him to continue in power the coalition effort on yahoo is expected to build would have a very slim majority but it would still give him the mandate he needs to map out this country's next four years but the paradox of this election is that the candidate say to when is not particularly liked by most of the country policia r.t.

tel aviv. now israelis will head to the polls tomorrow on tuesday and will be keeping a close eye on how that election unfolds. i'm here with some investors from england ok i'm here to show you blood work on my property in this area i mean those jewish boys. are not yet no exception ok thanks to the state solution. starts here so let us know. brock obama has officially begun his second presidential term after being sworn in at the white house later on monday he will spell out his vision for the next four years in his inaugural address but he's been criticized for failing to keep old promises to end wars and the nation's involvement there and also to cut the deficit

in the u.s. and shut down the guantanamo bay detention center but aren't you going to if you can reports there are even more pledges he's not addressed. it's generally thought that a second term six u.s. presidents free walks those handcuffs that kept them from doing great things in their first term because they had to think about getting reelected all the time in the last four years we've heard many times president obama's hands are tied on this issue word that issue suppose this election has on tied his hands we don't have a crystal ball to tell you what he's going to do with those three presidential hands but we may already see signs of what is to come president obama steps into his second term carrying a heavy load of promises along with the pledge the threat of another devastating war in the middle east for four years president obama pushed through a great extent by israel. war with iran i will take no options off the tape and

what i see. some believe the appointment of chuck hagel as defense secretary who is known to have been against a strike on iran may be a sign that the new obama administration will be less warmongering towards the word but two of the country's leading middle east experts orange convinced vision i would bet a certain amount of money we will hear the words all options are on the table come out of his come out of his mouth in addition to the point that we have the appointment of john brennan at the cia who i think is someone who the israelis are just fine with who will continue what many of the covert programs of course are drone program but many of the covert programs that would be under his under his authority at the cia that would be very much to israel's liking that will serve to undermine any attempts or any possibilities for. coming to terms of the islamic republic of iran john brennan has been in charge of president obama's targeted assassinations program is a point of push the notorious war on terror in

a different perspective and shows that it's far from over they want wars that will not redound against them at home politically so they don't want any more body bags they don't want more american troops. still to the extent they want to prevent that they want to have all the soldiers sitting in alexandria virginia or los angeles or whatever and running the groans that are killing people whether it's afghanistan or yemen or iran or you know were else however over the next four years the administration's reach will extend far beyond the middle east as it is said to continue its pivot to asia as well as building a missile shield provocatively close to russia's borders last year in a hot mike moment president obama told russia's made that even if that in his second term he'd be more flexible to discuss moscow close circuit. but it could turn out to be flexibility to words only president action believe

russia is still a opposed to it still sees it as we're just going to go ahead a little while president obama may have more control over foreign policy domestically there is a greater chance of his agenda getting bogged down in congress like gun control and the executive orders are useless and legislative proposals and i suspect will not pass in this country and i don't think it's in the offing anywhere in the near future because we are a culture that is very deeply. in love with our guns in the last four years congress more than was attempted to sabotage the president on key economic issues including reaching a last minute deal as the country teetered on the edge of fiscal cliff presidents who have trouble with congress like to do international things because they have to worry about congress much less the president's actions so far have shown little possibility that in the next four years he will be any more flexible on major

foreign policy issues as far as is the mess that could genda many doubt whether he's never ending battle with congress will allow him to move significantly beyond inspiring speeches in washington i'm kind of checking. and with obama given a second chance at change antiwar activist john placer says there won't be any noticeable shift in the president's policy as is typical with politicians what they say is very different from what they do there is a broad bipartisan consensus on some of the most terrible. national security issues that affect us on the domestic front i mean for example warrantless wiretapping this is a policy that was why is it legal to size when the bush administration was in power and now the obama administration has you know uniformly embraced it the obama administration has aggressively refused to allow any checks and balances and has even refused congressional requests to disclose how many americans are have been spied on so things like that i mean they're really troubling and i don't think he's

going to get as much pushback from congress says as one might hope in the foreign policy realm obama as unfortunately continued much of his predecessor's excesses and recklessness we will see a continuation of foreign policy of extreme interventionism getting involved in every corner of the planet regardless of the consequences. israel seems to be bringing up a generation of young patriots for money and government awards bonus high school teachers who succeeded in motivating students to do their army service for more on that head to our t. dot com. also on mind europe encased in snow as extremely low temperatures result in transport chaos and flight canceled across the continent. now for a look at more news making headlines around the world to packed commuter trains

have collided head on during rush hour in the austrian capital vienna five people were severely injured and one person remains trapped in the wreckage firefighters had to haul passengers haul passengers license. they threw windows to safety the line remains closed with hundreds of people stranded on their way to work and the cause of the crash is yet is yet known. at least two insurgents have been killed in a gun battle with security forces in the afghan capital kabul close to the part of the main building it follows a multiple suicide bomb attack on a nearby traffic police compound at least four police and six civilians were injured in the assault the taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack the second in less than a week. and a courthouse has been set on fire in the egyptian city of alexandria following day long clashes between riot police and protesters demonstrators were demanding justice in the trial of former security officers accused of killings during the two

thousand and eleven uprising violence first erupted when the presiding judge abruptly resigned without carrying out his duties. but catching a train became a matter of life and death for one russian man who fell from his carriage in subzero temperatures in a forest in russia's far east earlier archies tom barton told my colleague sean thomas the story. if we picture the scene we've got forty two year old valarie mail call for a lorry driver in this train clickety clack in its way through the forests in the a more region in russia's far east at night they decide to go for a cigarette but nothing special so he goes to the vestibule at the end of the carriage smokes his cigarettes and then as he stays went to open the door to go back to his carriage except it was the wrong door and he falls out the back of the train so he rapidly realizes that he is not just running to catch up with the train

but for his very life we managed to talk to him earlier he was a little bit embarrassed about the whole thing when i fell out i only had parents slippers in t. shirt but i ran for seven kilometers i didn't curse minitab and i just saw the train was gone so i came quickly to my senses and started running so that i didn't freeze i ran on the railway track for about twenty or thirty minutes when i go to the nearest station their eyes popped out after they saw a man with almost no clothes on women there quickly gave me to me and reported what just happened i didn't tell this to anybody my wife found out about the incident only after journalists called her i would imagine that the phone call he had with his wife after she had found help not from him but from journalists was possibly a little bit strained. in a few minutes a round up of the sport headlines with kate stay with r.t. .

georgian president mikheil saakashvili military police have been accused by prosecutors of using a very unusual weapon to control members of the government a weapon so unusual that history great villains wouldn't even touch it that weapon was almost sexuality the georgian prosecutor's office claims a network of gay spies was set up to seduce certain politicians in order to surveil them and blackmail them the gay spies would tempt men in the government into going back to their apartments which were filled with hidden cameras and microphones to record information and create a not safe for work video to be used to put pressure on these officials this is truly one of the most unique and kind of gross weapons of political intrigue i've ever heard of i mean how many men in georgia politics could possibly fall into the spy trap you know if he actually did implement this scheme and it actually worked than machiavelli and von bismarck could have

a thing or two to learn from president saakashvili but that's just my opinion. hello welcome to the our team sports show with make a partridge and hear other top stories. big battle saturday can called next the winner as defending champions the nominee must i fight back to win a three two thriller it's gone and we are in the title race in the us. last year i filed a test of a joint top of their group and kinky thrash market me on a big week for the russian teams in the top sixteen of the year again. and lighting up with just a very you have to go to the winter games feeling like torches unveiled which will

travel all across russia before reaching the host venue also change. but first to the ice where defending champions do not my must go beat skull streets and i cringe battling some petersburg to pump life into the title race in the west roberts by the neon reports. this is currently one of the biggest rivalries in the . on serve a cup holder is the no more skilled this is called favorite skier and it was seen on a man opens in a ball play me the colleen boy from the blue line to give the host the one the lead the number was quick to level though and it was all down to sky goalie years of whose terrible blunder it turned into the good old games first get chilled the old . school regain their leave your man go and be sturm around you the next morning they are done better you now must look somebody you don't.